Great ape sanctuaries provide lifetime care for displaced chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans from research facilities, entertainment, and the illegal pet trade.
Great ape sanctuary welfare involves the long-term challenge of providing meaningful, dignified lives for animals that may carry physical and psychological trauma from previous exploitation. Social integration is the highest welfare priority, as great apes require conspecific social contact for psychological health. Integration must proceed gradually to prevent injury and hierarchy stress. Cognitive enrichment, foraging opportunities, and complex environments that provide choice and agency support positive welfare states. Financial sustainability is a welfare issue: sanctuaries that cannot secure long-term funding face the welfare crisis of being unable to maintain standards for animals they are ethically committed to for life.